


The Brittle Coil

by Flannigan



Category: Hanna Is Not A Boy's Name
Genre: Angst, Blood Drinking, Established Relationship, M/M, Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-16
Updated: 2018-07-16
Packaged: 2019-06-11 10:33:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,350
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15313596
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Flannigan/pseuds/Flannigan
Summary: Finas comes in and out of Abner's life over the decades, and his hair is more grey now. Stubbornly Abner keeps hunting, and stubbornly they refuse to stop worrying for each other.With age comes risks to make the worst mistake you've ever made and ever will do.





	The Brittle Coil

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to Casimania for sending me the title "The Brittle Coil" on tumblr and inspiring me to write a story, and realize I already outlined smth very close to it a long time ago.

Finas' phone rang. The screen read: A.V.  
  
_Abner Vanslyk  
_  
Finas smirked to himself. What a coincidence.  
  
He answered. There was fast, shallow breathing.  
  
_"If a human drinks vampiric blood but throws it up, will they still change?"_ his voice was labored. Finas' smirk faded.  
  
"I don't know. Maybe. Why are you asking?" Alarm made him stop in his tracks and duck into an empty bus stop, focusing on his voice.  
  
Abner retched and gasped. He heard running water and splashes. Bangs as Abner grabbed his phone again.  
  
_"I hunted. I made a mistake. I..."_ Abner inhaled, began speaking but cut himself off.  
  
"Are you all right?" Finas interjected quickly.  
  
A beat.  
  
_"No,"_ Abner groaned. _"I'm sick. I- I need to see you. How far away are you?"_  
  
"About five minutes. I was on my way to surprise you."  
  
_"You know I don't like surprises."  
_  
"I was excited to meet you again." If Casimiro heard him right now, he'd make fun of him for his 'mushy feelings' for a man who was technically his enemy.  
  
_"I need to ask you a favor. Please hurry."_

*****

Finas walked over the threshold, the invitation Abner had extended towards him decades ago had never been revoked. He was always welcome.  
  
In Abner he saw signs of age, of life, of survival. Healed wounds, scars, tattoos both aesthetic and with magic significance, strands of grey on his temples, and furrows formed on his forehead. His hair was a little greyer than the last picture Abner sent him. He saw signs of sickness, too. Abner was too pale for his complexion, hollows under his unfocused eyes and shivering. But Abner smiled when he saw him.  
  
Finas gripped the aged hunter by the shoulders and embraced him. Washed over with that warmth that could overwhelm him so he tended to hold him much longer than a normal hug. Abner gripped him tightly in return, hands shaking and sweaty. His grey t-shirt was damp with sweat and water splashed down his chest.  
"Tell me what happened," Finas demanded, focusing everything into not panicking. He could help Abner get through this.  
  
"I got overconfident. It cost me everything." Abner kissed him. Finas stiffened. Abner would never kiss him on the lips without being satisfied he had no blood residue on them. Finas broke the kiss and pushed him back in a chair in the kitchen.  
  
"I need to know what happened," he demanded louder.  
  
"I was ambushed," Abner swallowed and avoided looking at him, "and they fed me their blood. I got sick, and I think I'm going to die and become like you."  
  
Finas turned a chair around and sat down, facing him.  
  
"How long ago was this?"  
  
"12 hours. I threw it up as soon as I could. I'm not sure what happens to me."  
  
Finas leaned back in his chair, hand over his mouth. Abner continued speaking, looking away.  
  
"I'm afraid I'll die and become a vampire."  
  
"You don't know that. You might just get sick, and that's it."  
  
"I don't want to take that risk."  
  
"What are you going to do?" Finas wished he didn't need to ask that question. He felt dread creeping over his thoughts.  
  
"You promised to not personally kill anyone, for me."  
  
"Abner-"  
  
"I've kept you from your nature long enough. I'm giving you permission to kill me."  
  
Finas stood up, knocking the chair over with the force and made Abner jerk. He shook his head, backing away from him and away from the words just spoken. Abner looked at him now, sadly.  
  
"I can't turn into a vampire."  
  
"Why not?" Finas asked foolishly, he knew. Like a child. Abner slowly stood up, supporting himself on the table as he rose, and walked over to Finas and got lower to catch his eye.  
  
"I want to _end_ ," Abner said softly.  
  
He didn't want Abner to end. Continue to exist with him, dead but alive, forever, as long as they feasibly could, together.  
  
It wasn't up to him. The only real decision a person can make is the way they go out. He told himself in the future he'd be honoured to be chosen as Abner's way.  
  
A long moment of silence falls between them. Finas is intimately aware of death, dying and suicide. It is as sacred as anything could ever be. He cannot refuse this request.  
  
"Abner, I..." He can't form the words, so he takes Abner's hands tight in his, and Abner squeezes back. He looks into his eyes and sees them less brown and more crimson.  
  
Despite everything Abner smiles and nods, as if he understood what Finas couldn't say.  
  
Finas took a slow breath and tried to etch Abner into his memories. He reached up and stroked his cheek with his thumb, Abner's hand enveloping over his.  
  
"I'll remember you," he promised with a whisper, inching closer until they were in the same space.  
  
"You don't have to."  
  
"I can't not."  
  
Abner leaned down. It started with a slow, gentle kiss. Lips pecking, sliding over, sharing the same breath. Careful yet explosive. Fists clenched into his shirt at his back as Abner tilted his face up with a held back groan. Another kiss, lips grazing down the length of his neck, light suck, pinch of teeth, feeling Abner's heart beat like a drum. Memories of years ago flashed in Finas' mind.  
  
Who had fed Abner the blood, he wondered. His ambitions danced around revenge, but the fire of anger and despair died out, knowing that Abner certainly had killed them for it.  
  
He braced himself and the instinct to feed came naturally, unstoppable. He sank his sharp fangs and teeth into his flesh, punctured veins and tore muscles, mouth overfilling with blood. He swallowed hard, chest hurting with the amount. It tasted dead. Abner was in the middle of his 2nd birth.  
  
Abner hissed and spat curses, but remained in place.  
  
The spray and bursts of blood escaped his lips to soak them both in dark red, discolour the collar of his shirt and cascade down Abner's chest.  
  
Abner slacked in his hold around his waist, Finas held him up and lowered them both to the floor. He cradled Abner in his arms, not caring for the wasted blood pooling under them—only for the man it came out of—cared only to hold his foggy gaze. Abner's hand gripped the front of his shirt as he coughed up blood.  
  
Abner Vanslyk, infamous vampire hunter, died from exsanguination in his arms with open eyes.  
  
Finas waited.  
  
And waited.  
  
Moments and minutes turned into an hour, and Abner turned cold.  
  
Abner didn't wake up.  
  
His hope that Abner was too late to act, that he would awake and be forced to share his curse, shattered on the floor and broke his heart.

*****

More time passed and Finas didn't feel anything. He recognized this numbness. It would not end well for him. He didn't care, but he knew Casimiro did.  
  
He pulled up his phone from his pocket and dialed him.  
  
"... Abner is dead," he said in greeting.  
  
_"Shit..."_ Casimiro said, then sighed, _"What happened?"_  
  
"I killed him." He said far too distant to be normal. He trusted Casimiro recognized it. "I need you to come get me."  
  
Sounds, beats and footsteps, doors, jangle of keys.  
  
_"Where are you? His place?"_  
  
"Yes," Finas said and Casimiro hung up.  
  
A quarter of an hour later Casimiro knelt down next to him where he sat by Abner's corpse. He brandished a knife from his jacket and slashed up his throat to disguise the bite, and asked Finas for details. Finas only said 'He was in the process of turning.'  
  
"Bad luck, Abby..." Casimiro tutted and cleaned the dagger on the hem of Abner's shirt and pocketed it, then lightly put his fingertips over his eyes and pulled down his lids. Casimiro usually didn't do that. Finas had to remember to thank him for his consideration in the future.  
  
"Come on, Fin," Casimiro said and stood up. Finas got up and followed him out.  
  
Abner had been lucky. He got to end.


End file.
